Windows9x Network Boot Floppy

If you do not want to use the "Microsoft
Network Client 3.0 for DOS" to create a DOS-boot
floppy, you can create a boot-floppy
from a Windows 95/98 installation, allowing to establish a
network connection to another windows system (Windows 95/98 or
NT4 workstation or server)
using NetBEUI and IPX/SPX protocol (this
method can NOT be used to connect via TCP/IP ! )

Windows95/98 network drivers will read the configuration from the
Windows registry, to be more
specific: from the file SYSTEM.DAT, and that file is usually
greater than 4 MByte and will NOT fit
onto a floppy. However it is possible to extract the registry
keys containing the network configuration
from the Windows registry and create a new SYSTEM.DAT of just a
few Kbyte, which will fit onto
a floppy disk together with all other required network drivers.

Warning:
The next steps will require to work in the Windows
registry, so please make FIRST a backup of
the Registry files SYSTEM.DAT and USER.DAT,
allowing you to recover the Windows95/98
system in case on of the following steps damages/destroys
your registry files !

You need to edit the files K2.REG,
K3.REG and K4.REG
( NOT the file K1.REG ! )

At the top of the file is the keyword "REGEDIT4":

erase that keyword "REGEDIT4",
then save the file.

You need to combine the 4 files K1.REG, K2.REG, K3.REG ane K4.REG
into a single
REG-file: please open a command-prompt window ("MS-DOS
Prompt") , change to the
directory where the REG-files are stored (in my example
C:\REGDISK ) and type the
command: copy K1.reg + K2.reg + k3.reg + k4.reg kall.reg( if you insist on using the Windows
GUI: copy/paste the content of K2.REG to the end of K1.REG,
then copy/paste K3.REG and K4.REG to the end of K1.REG )

You now need to convert this combined REG-file into a new
SYSTEM.DAT :

It can NOT be done within the
Windows GUI
or inside a Command-prompt ( "MS-DOS
Prompt")
window, you MUST restart in
MS-DOS mode.

Change to the directory, where the REG-files
are stored.
You can ask for the available command-line parameter of REGEDIT :
REGEDIT /?

IMPORTANT NOTE:
although we only need to create a new SYSTEM.DAT (using
the
"L"-command line parameter) , you MUST
also define the path for a new USER.DAT (using
the "R"-command line parameter) , otherwise
this REGEDIT-command will overwrite your current
USER.DAT in your Windows-directory and your Windows
systems will now start anymore !
( did you make the backup of your registry
files ? )

Restart your Windows
System and
format a floppy with system-files
(to be able to boot from it) either
using the properties of the floppy-disk
drive or an MS-DOS Prompt Window:

You need to copy
now the following
files from your Windows directory
(usually: C:\WINDOWS ) to the
floppy disk:

- HIMEM.SYS
- EMM386.EXE
- NDISHLP.SYS
- NET.EXE
- NET.MSG
- PROTMAN.DOS
- PROTMAN.EXE
- PROTOCOL.INI
- SYSTEM.INI
in addition, the 16-bit (Real-Mode)
driver for your network card:
look in your Windows directory
for all file with appendix DOS,
there should be only one in addition
to PROTMAN.DOS, copy it also,
in my example: PCIND.DOS(if you have more than one,
then you may
have used different network cards in your
system, copy all of them, they are usually
small files)

copy also the password-file
(PWL-file) for your user login.

copy the SYSTEM.DAT (created above)
to the floppy. Since it is a hidden file,you
will need to unhide it first ( using the ATTRIB-command)

You need to make a change to the
SYSTEM.INI on the floppy:
display it in an editor (like NOTEPAD)
and search for the section:[Password Lists]

You will need just the entry for the
PWL-files copied to the floppy disk,
adjust the path to point to the
floppy disk ( "A:\" )

Store the modified SYSTEM.INI
back to the floppy disk.

create an
AUTOEXEC.BAT for the
floppy disk

create a CONFIG.SYS for the
floppy disk:
You need to use enter the driver-name
for your specific network card,
the one copied to the floppy disk( in the step above )

The Windows Boot-floppy with network support is ready,
there is some space left to copy some required utility programs
onto it, like:
- FDISK.EXE, FORMAT.EXE and an editor like EDIT.COM:

You can now boot from this
floppy disk, it will load the network drivers.
once you are at the command-prompt, you need to start the
WORKSTATION module
of the network, which will handle also the logon to the network:

Then, you can connect to another Windows system (like an
NT-server) by mapping a
network-drive using the NET-command:NET USE <drive-character:>
<\\<servername>\<sharename>

example:
the connection to this system listed
in the "Network Neighborhood":net use f: \\P120_home\c-drive